Filling up has become the political dossier that the government has to deal with at the end of the summer, when the queues of the counter-exodus are joined by a price run that has now brought petrol and diesel permanently back beyond thresholds that seemed to have been archived. And this time Palazzo Chigi seems to have decided to change strategy: a few more days of generalized protection to avoid an immediate step to the pump, then a more selective system, focused on those who really need support. However, in the background remains the decisive issue, that of resources, which Rome is trying to transform from a national problem to a European issue through the dossier of extra oil profits.
The photograph from August 25th does not leave much room for interpretation. According to the latest data from the Fuel Price Observatory of the Ministry of Business and Made in Italy, on the national road network self-service petrol has reached on average 2.015 euros per litrewhile diesel rose to 2,136 euros. On the motorway you pass respectively to 2,091 euros for petrol and 2,207 for dieselwith much higher peaks in individual plants and premium fuels. Numbers that explain why, on the eve of the expiry of the current relief, the dossier has returned to the center of the executive’s agenda.
Today Giorgia Meloni brought together the deputy prime ministers Antonio Tajani and Matteo Salvini, the Minister of Economy Giancarlo Giorgetti and the leader of Noi Moderati Maurizio Lupi at Palazzo Chigi. A first precise indication emerged from the summit: Tomorrow, August 26, a new Council of Ministers is expected which should extend the measures currently in force for a few daysin particular the discount on diesel. However, according to sources in the Presidency of the Council, it will not be the definitive solution. The extension will serve to gain the time necessary to build a different intervention, “more focused on the income groups that most need state support”, therefore more selective compared to the indistinct cuts applied so far.
It is the most politically important step. For months the government has used excise duties as an immediate shock absorber against increases, intervening directly on the price at the pump. The last extension was approved at the beginning of August and the decree subsequently signed by Giorgetti and the Minister of the Environment Gilberto Pichetto Fratin activated the mechanism of the so-called mobile excise dutiesusing the extra VAT revenue produced by the increase in oil prices to maintain the reduction on diesel until 26 August. The decree of the Ministry of Economy of 20 August, published in the Official Journal on the 24th, formally certifies the temporary redetermination of the rate.
However, continuing with generalized extensions means finding new coverage every time. And it is precisely here that the line begins to change. Salvini, speaking at the Rimini Meeting, confirmed that the immediate intention is to extend the discount on diesel “for a few days, until September”, and then move on to something “more continuous” and “more substantial”. But to do this, the deputy prime minister himself acknowledged, resources are needed.
From cuts for all to selective aid
The point is that the increase in fuel prices does not affect all families and businesses in the same way, while a general discount on excise duties is given to anyone who refuels, regardless of income. It is on this asymmetry that Palazzo Chigi is working on the next phase: fewer horizontal interventions and more targeted measures, potentially aimed at the lowest income groups or the sectors that depend most on road transport.
However, there is not yet a definitive provision nor have the criteria with which the beneficiaries would be identified have been established. At the moment it is therefore premature to talk about ISEE thresholds, fuel bonuses or social cards already decided. What the government has officially indicated is the political objective: to concentrate resources on the groups that most need public support and thus make the intervention more effective and less expensive.
The choice inevitably also involves a problem of consensus. Consumer associations have already expressed doubts about the idea of restricting aid, arguing that the price increases affect the entire population of motorists and produce consequences that go far beyond the distributor, because the cost of fuel enters into logistics, the transport of goods and therefore into the final prices. It’s the classic energy multiplier effect: the bill arrives at the pump first, but can move quickly to the shelves.
The money game leads to Brussels
The real issue, however, remains finding the coverage to transform the emergency into a more stable measure. And this is where the dossier of the extra profits of oil companieson which the Italian government is trying to build a European response.
Italy is not alone. Germany, Spain, Portugal, Poland and Austriatogether with Rome, have written to the Irish Presidency of the European Union asking that the topic be included in the agenda of the meeting of Finance Ministers scheduled in Dublin on 18 and 19 September. In the letter, seen by Reuters, the six governments ask to discuss a European framework for taxing the exceptional profits produced by oil companies in the phase of sharp increase in energy prices, also taking as reference the experience gained during the 2022 crisis.
The international context explains the urgency. According to Reuters, since the start of the US-Israeli war against Iran on February 28, oil has risen by around 25 percentbut the increase in refined products was much stronger: in Europe diesel recorded an increase of more than 70 percentwhile petrol grew by around 20 percent. The six finance ministers maintain that the interventions adopted so far by governments have not been sufficient to stabilize prices in a lasting way and ask that those who benefit from the crisis also contribute to reducing the cost for citizens and businesses.
This does not mean, however, that a European tax is already in preparation. Indeed, precisely on this point Brussels has curbed expectations. The European Commission reiterated that the taxation of extra profits remains the responsibility of the Member Stateswhich can already use their tax instruments in compliance with European law. Brussels can provide assistance and coordination, but is not currently preparing a single levy applied directly at EU level.
The distinction is not secondary. The six countries are therefore not discussing an already defined European tax, but are asking for one common frameworkalso to address one of the problems that make many national interventions ineffective: large oil companies operate in multiple states and a significant portion of their profits can be made outside the country that would like to tax them. The letter asks to study in particular how to include the foreign profits of multinationals in a more targeted way and also requests rapid results from the European survey on refinery margins, to verify that the crisis is not being used to artificially widen profit margins.
However, before even arriving in Brussels, the issue crosses the majority. The League looks favorably at the possibility of asking for a contribution from those who are benefiting from energy increases, while Forza Italia maintains a more prudent position on the taxation of extra profits. Tajani reiterated that he prefers the path of a contribution agreed with the oil companies rather than the introduction of a new national tax, recalling the comparison model already used with other large economic sectors.
For this reason, the solution that will emerge in the next few weeks will be the result of at least three simultaneous negotiations: the internal one within the majority on coverage, the social one on who should receive aid and the European one on the possibility of building a coordinated response to the extraordinary profits produced by the energy crisis.
Only the first piece will arrive tomorrow. If the Council of Ministers confirms the line anticipated by Palazzo Chigi, motorists will avoid the immediate end of the discount on diesel for a few days. But it will be an extension with an even more important political expiry date than the one written in the decree, because it will mark the transition from emergency interventions to an inevitably more complex choice: decide who to protect from high fuel prices, how much to spend and above all who will have to pay the bill.
